As he looks around the world our President finds a number of leaders he admires. They’re in his own image – assertive, autocratic, impatient with opposition. An especially gross example, whom Trump has invited to the White House, is the Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, a proud advocate of murder as a policy.

Duterte said the drug trade I will very quickly banishFrom the streets of all my cities it must absolutely vanish.Other countries fill their prisons, for us that’s too expensiveAnd some try toleration which to me is quite offensive.

I’m ending the debate, all the pros and all the antis,I’ll order the police and I’ll call on vigilantes.Exterminate the dealers! The law, just rise above it!That isn’t democratic? But the people seem to love it. .

Yet no matter how he’s dressed it up with flowery preamblesWithout the rule of law he makes morality a shambles.That he’s cleaning up the system is a claim completely idleWhen his strategy of governing is simply homicidal.

Then there is Turkey’s Recepe Erdogan. He came to power as an alternative to military rule, then step by step moved to increase his own authority until he narrowly won a referendum giving him an unprecedented degree of authority – a result immediately applauded by Donald Trump. The President’s supporters argued that Turkey is a key NATO ally, offering us indispensable bases. Moreover, there is a persistent threat of insurrection in Turkey (organized, most Turks believe by Fethullah Gulen, a moderate Muslim cleric, formerly an ally of Erdogan, now living in exile in Pennsylvania).

Erdogan was cherished as a great emancipatorBroke the power of the army, but unfortunately laterHis style grew autocratic and with scandals rocking TurkeyThe health of their democracy became distinctly murky.

It’s true, of course, he’s just survived a crazy insurrectionBy an opposition group that faced immediate rejection.But I don’t think that can justify harassment and detentionOf journalists and everyone suspected of dissension.

So why did Donald Trump rush in ahead of other nationsTo offer Erdogan his most sincere congratulations?Could it be that Turkish policy’s a very hot potatoWhen it comes to their positions on the policies of NATO?

For Turkey is an ally that our strategy embracesAnd offers us locations for our military bases.So does this explain Trump’s fondness for his counterpart quite fully?
My own view is quite simply that he likes that kind of bully.

Posted on Saturday, May 06, 2017 (Archive on Friday, January 31, 2020)